Although criminal justice advocates and elected officials have finally realized that mass incarceration in the criminal context is costly and ineffective, this recognition has not extended to the immigration detention system. The primary reason for the detention of 478,000 immigrants in 2012 is the little known “bed space” provision in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) annual appropriation bill. Since 2009, Congress has mandated that no fewer than 34,000 immigration detention beds be maintained and filled on a daily basis. Last year and again this year, Congress rejected President Barack Obama’s request that the required daily quota of detainees be reduced to 30,500. But even the Obama number is extraordinarily high. Immigration detention policy should not be driven by an absolute numerical requirement that incentivizes immigrants’ incarceration, without regard to their individual circumstances.

Immigrants have an important constitutional right to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberty. This constitutional protection is especially important because violations of immigration law are civil, not criminal, infractions. Unlike those incarcerated for crimes, immigrants must be held in nonpunitive civil detention environments. Civil detention also means that the deprivation of liberty should be the last, not the first, resort to ensure that immigrants appear for their court hearings to determine whether they may remain in this country. However, as the DHS has admitted, the majority of immigrants are held in penal-like facilities that provide the necessary space to comply with the bed space mandate. In these facilities, immigrants wear prison uniforms and have limits on freedom of movement, access to the outdoors and contact visits with relatives.

The experience of The University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic, while working with women detained at the T. Don Hutto detention center near Austin, illustrates the perverse results of the detention quota. Rather than base release decisions on individual circumstances and liberty interests, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials at the detention center set bonds for immigrant women to ensure compliance with the 34,000 detention quota. Bonds fluctuate drastically depending on the flow of immigrants in and out of the facility.

Rather than base release decisions on individual circumstances and liberty interests, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials at the detention center set bonds for immigrant women to ensure compliance with the 34,000 detention quota. Bonds fluctuate drastically depending on the flow of immigrants in and out of the facility.

When the facility is at capacity, ICE sets lower bonds; when the number of women entering the facility dips, ICE consistently sets higher bonds to meet the bed space requirement.

The lack of meaningful immigration reform fuels and fills the quota requirement. Unfortunately, many of the immigrants caught up in the detention and deportation dragnet, who have lived for many years in the U.S. and who have significant family ties in this country, become numerical statistics that allow ICE to comply with the mandate.

Within the criminal justice system, state and federal entities are increasingly aware of the high costs and the failures of the unprecedented increase in the number of people incarcerated. Accordingly, policymakers have shifted their focus to rehabilitative and other innovative programs. ICE should do the same and pursue alternatives to detention for those accused of regulatory violations of the immigration laws who await a decision as to whether they may remain in this country. Detention of an immigrant costs approximately $159 per day, adding up to a total of $5 million per day. On the other hand, alternatives to detention, such as supervised release and reporting programs, community group homes, and even electronic monitoring cost no more than $17 per day. Nevertheless, the arbitrary 34,000 daily quota is a significant obstacle to the development of true alternatives to detention and to the operation of detention centers that incorporate civil, nonpunitive detention standards. The mandate has also contributed to the unprecedented deportation of 368,644 people from the United States in 2013.

Advocates, civil rights organizations and some legislators are calling for an end to this flawed detention policy, and they are right to do so. Congress should repeal the bed space mandate to allow ICE to instead implement a true civil detention model that requires individualized assessments of flight risk and danger to the community, implements alternatives to detention and, if necessary, detains immigrants in the least restrictive civil detention setting possible.

Barbara Hines is a clinical professor of law and the co-director of the Immigration Clinic at The University of Texas School at Austin. She has litigated many issues relating to the constitutional and statutory rights of immigrants in federal and immigration courts including the lawsuit leading to end of detention of immigrant families and children at the Hutto detention center in Texas.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The University of Texas at Austin, in recognition of the Civil Rights Summit — honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act — held at the LBJ Presidential Library at The University of Texas.

]]>http://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/04/09/immigration-civil-rights/feed/3Opinion: LBJ’s Legacy Lives Onhttp://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/04/08/opinion-lbjs-legacy-lives-on/
http://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/04/08/opinion-lbjs-legacy-lives-on/#commentsTue, 08 Apr 2014 18:11:46 +0000Tracy Muellerhttp://www.utexas.edu/know/?p=34282With four presidents in attendance, along with many heroes of the civil rights era of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Summit [April 8-10 at the LBJ Presidential Library at The University of Texas] is no doubt an historic occasion. It is also an extraordinary opportunity. As we look back on where we as a country and a people have come in the last half century, we do this with an eye on the future. The real opportunity lies in the engagement and empowerment of a new generation who will become tomorrow’s heroes.

As a product of the segregated south, I remember vividly what my small central Florida hometown was like in the early 1960s, with two high schools, two movie theaters, two drinking fountains at every gas station, two divided communities – one “colored,” one white. President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s leadership – and that of Dr. Martin Luther King and the countless other courageous leaders of that generation – rescued us all from that shameful legacy.

President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s leadership – and that of Dr. Martin Luther King and the countless other courageous leaders of that generation – rescued us all from that shameful legacy.

Slavery was our country’s original sin, and it took this generation of leaders, black and white, to begin the process of redemption.

For me, this Civil Rights Summit is intensely personal. Like so many others of my generation, I was inspired by President Johnson – and President Kennedy before him – to a career of public service. I enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman recruit my senior year of high school, in the final weeks of JFK’s life. President Johnson was my commander-in-chief during almost my entire four years at the U.S. Naval Academy. I have been in public service ever since – thanks to leaders like JFK, LBJ, and so many others, famous and nameless, who rescued me and our country.

Students today look back on this period through different eyes. They may have little personal connection to the issues that drove my generation, but they are similarly inspired by the ability of this bygone generation’s record of achievement for the public good. President Johnson’s legislative achievements transformed our society and are a testament to his ability to ‘get things done.’ We intend to draw upon his legacy as a way to inspire and empower a new ‘get it done’ generation to tackle the great policy challenges of our time, to overcome stagnation and partisanship in our politics. As a public policy school, our greatest contribution is to bring this spirit back to our political life.

We intend to draw upon his legacy as a way to inspire and empower a new ‘get it done’ generation to tackle the great policy challenges of our time, to overcome stagnation and partisanship in our politics. As a public policy school, our greatest contribution is to bring this spirit back to our political life.

So the LBJ School of Public Affairs will bring LBJ back to Washington, by creating a new LBJ School Washington Center in the heart of Washington, D.C. We plan to open our doors next year.

Students today want America to be great. They care less about whether it is big government or small government, but that government is good, that government is effective, that government is ethical. They want to make the world a better place, and are prepared to do it one project, one person at a time. It is what I call applied idealism, and it is exactly what President Johnson showed all of us through action 50 years ago.

Robert Hutchings is dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the former Chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council in Washington. His career has included service as Fellow and Director of International Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Director for European Affairs with the National Security Council, and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State, with the rank of ambassador.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The University of Texas at Austin, in recognition of the Civil Rights Summit — honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act — held at the LBJ Presidential Library.

“What the people want is very simple – an America as good as its promise,” said U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, the first southern African-American female elected to the United States House of Representatives and an LBJ School faculty member from 1979-1996.

As The University of Texas at Austin prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through its Civil Rights Summit, it has prompted some reflection on how important that time was in our country’s history.

“As a young woman I thought by the 21st Century the hard work of ensuring social and economic justice for all Americans would be done.”

In 1964, I was studying at Howard University in Washington, D.C. but the vivid memory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy was still crisp and I marveled at the courage of college students in the South who were challenging the status quo of Jim Crow. And that summer a few days before the 4th of July, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.

Here was President Johnson standing in the shadow of one the most revered and beloved presidents of our time, during one of the most racially tumultuous and violent periods in recent history. But Johnson didn’t waste any time, making clear his responsibility to exercise his oath to fulfill the promise of America. He said, “We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for 100 years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law.” He was an unlikely champion in the eyes of some, but his love of his country and his compassion for those in need made him uniquely qualified to lead the change in the halls of Congress.

The many civil rights landmark victories that helped to advance equal opportunity in education, housing, voting rights, public accommodations and numerous other public programs were monumental. No doubt the inherent promise of the Civil Rights Act was to reframe public policy that was fair and just. Social and economic justice was merely a dream for many. Most of us didn’t understand how fast change would come—or how long it would take to be fully realized. As a young woman I thought by the 21st Century the hard work of ensuring social and economic justice for all Americans would be done.

Celebrating the Johnson legacy calls us to celebrate the hundreds of named and unnamed freedom workers, marchers and civil rights supporters whose faith in our democracy called them to act. Those change agents bequeath to us a legacy worthy of their courage and vision. From this bold and courageous legacy, we can draw inspiration to be agents of change ourselves. Fifty years is long enough to get used to the law, long enough to embrace change and long enough to realize the promise of today’s America.

Fifty years from now, our Civil Rights legacy should be that we ensured equality through policies and laws that outlawed discrimination, period. No caveats, no loopholes, no veiled attempts. Our actions should be as bold as those before us.

Every child can learn and deserves a fair chance at education, every child should be safe from harm, every immigrant should have a path to citizenship, every family should have access to good healthcare, every man or woman should have the right to inherit love and marry, and income equality should be possible, the air and water should be clean, the earth should be honored and that America’s promise is possible.

Shirley Franklin served as mayor of the City of Atlanta from 2002 to 2010. Upon her election, she became the first African-American woman elected mayor of any major Southern city. She joined the LBJ School of Public Affairs as the Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor of Ethics and Political Values in 2013.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The University of Texas at Austin, in recognition of the Civil Rights Summit — honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act — held at the LBJ Presidential Library April 8-10.

[UT home page banner image: Civil rights leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Via the National Archives.]

]]>http://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/04/07/shirley-franklin-civil-rights/feed/2Watch the Civil Rights Summit Livehttp://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/03/31/civil-rights-summit-livestream/
http://www.utexas.edu/know/2014/03/31/civil-rights-summit-livestream/#commentsMon, 31 Mar 2014 23:23:28 +0000Tracy Muellerhttp://www.utexas.edu/know/?p=34232There are no remaining tickets available to attend the LBJ Presidential Library’s Civil Rights Summit April 8-10, but you can still watch the speeches and panels, thanks to extensive livestreaming coverage.

The Summit will mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was spearheaded and signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. President Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address at the Summit on Thursday, April 10. Three former Presidents will also deliver remarks at the Civil Rights Summit: Jimmy Carter will speak on Tuesday, April 8; Bill Clinton will speak on Wednesday, April 9; and George W. Bush will speak on Thursday, April 10. (See the complete panel and speaker lineup.)

To allow everyone to enjoy the Summit, the LBJ Presidential Library — in collaboration with Google and Longhorn Network — will live stream each of the Summit programs on CivilRightsSummit.org.

President Bill Powers is sponsoring a screening of the April 10 remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama and former president George W. Bush on the UT Main Mall. A large screen will be set up on the south steps of the Tower (Main Building) and students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to watch a live stream of these historic addresses.

On The University of Texas at Austin campus, the Summit will be broadcast on Channel 11, with open captions on Channel 07. The Longhorn Network is also available on campus CATV digital channels 444 (SD) and 1593 (HD) and, in the Residence Halls, CATV system channel 29.

*The summit will be broadcast live, with the exception of the Conversation with The Honorable Jimmy Carter, which will be presented on Tuesday, April 8 at 11 p.m. CT, with an encore presentation Wednesday, April 9 at 4:30 p.m. CT.

More Commemorative Civil Rights Activities at UT

In advance of the Summit, Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, chairman of The University of Texas Radio Television Film department and LBJ School of Public Affairs professor Paul Stekler will host a screening of documentaries and speeches that chronicle the civil rights era and the pivotal role played by President Lyndon Johnson in the passing of landmark legislation.

During the Summit and throughout the month of April, a “Cornerstones of Civil Rights“ exhibit will be on display at the LBJ Library linking the civil rights legacies of Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. On display will be the 13th Amendment Resolution ending slavery and signed by President Lincoln, original documents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and iconic hats worn by LBJ and Lincoln.

50 for 50: Empowering the Next ‘Get it Done’ Generation
The LBJ School of Public Affairs, in partnership with the LBJ Foundation and the LBJ Presidential Library, will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the unprecedented legislative legacy of the 36th President of the United States in a multiyear campaign.

Over the next two years, the school will present “50 for 50,” a special series of 50 events for 50 years that will explore the critical civil rights issues of our time, such as human rights and social justice, and will call for a renewed effort to “get things done” to improve the lives of all citizens. View an interactive calendar with more information on upcoming events.